Hello Everyone,

I passed the PMP on my first attempt (2P,2MP,1BP) and celebration is going on…:), here are the few things that I would like to share or better I can say my PMP Journey.

PMP was my dream since last 3-4 years but never studied seriously, every time I postponed for some reason and busy with project and other things in life. Last year, in May-June I completed the 35 hrs classes but started preparation this year from mid Jan 2014.  My application was at random selected by PMI system for Audit, I would like to mention that it’s a very smooth process so don’t worry if anyone of you go through with it. I sent all the required documents to PMI in a week time as my all previous supervisors are in US itself and I got approvals from them on my experience. PMI has also approved my application on same day they had received the documents(I tracked my application through USPS)

Before writing anything else regarding my preparation, I would strongly recommend that everyone who are preparing “Must read the PMBOK”, every line in this book have a reason and also some concepts/information that are missing in other books.

Books for preparation:

Apart from PMBOK, I gone through the well know books Rita Mulcahy, Andy Crowe and HeadFirst.

It may be you will think why 3 books? In my case, I don’t want to left any stone unturned :) I purchased only Headfirst and got Ande and Rita from Library.

I would recommend as Lesson learned that go with PMBOK + 1 book of your choice, important thing to  understand the knowledge areas and processes from PMI point of view and make sure that you understand the  concepts. No need to memorize the ITTO’s, just try to understand the processes and write down on blank paper whatever you understand and go back to see the gaps.

Practice Question’s:

I would recommend to take variety of mock tests (listed below) as you will learn from each of them and that’s the key to fill your gaps.

·         All the questions at the end of above mentioned books

·         200 Q from Ande Crowe

·         200 Q from HeadFirst

·         200 Q from Simplilearn

·        100 Q from PMForSure – must do if you think you are ready for exam, real eye opener for me. Purchased all 10 sets (100 Q each) just week before the exam for $25.

·         200 Q from PMStudy (free 3-days trial)

·         75 Q from Oliver Lehmann

·         175 Q from Oliver Lehmann

·         170 Q PM Exam Simulator (Free 3-day Trial)

·         30 Q PMZilla

My first time result on above sets varies from 61%-80% , I would recommend to take advantage of scoring low because it is the only situation where you will be able to find gaps. I learned from my mistakes and went through the topic again.

Exam Day

I was nervous and I think it’s very normal for anyone who is going for exam like PMP but good thing was that I slept well the night before the exam. I planned and targeted to give maximum of 1 minute to any question so that I complete the exam in 3 Hrs 20 min. and to leave 40 min for review.

Before starting my exam I wrote down all the processes and formula’s on sheet provided by Prometric but never saw those pages during the exam. I completed first 10 questions in 15 min that puts some pressure but  I continued and completed 50 questions in 1 hour, I was lagging 10 questions as per my plan. I concentrated and completed another 75 questions in 2^nd hour then another 75 questions in 3^rd hour without any break. This was a great relief that I had completed all questions with 1 hour left for review. Here I will recommend to everyone that practice to read/understand the question fast and don’t skip any question without making a choice as there is no negative marking so take a best guess and move on. Seems this is the only reason I was able to complete 200 questions in 3 hrs, I had not wasted the time on any question more than a minute except few. In last one hour, I reviewed from question 1 to 200 by changing the answers for 8-10 questions. 

Exam was not so tough and not easy, its unique PMI kind of thing.

One last thing that there is no shortcut for success, personal commitment is very important to achieve anything in life, PMP is not the only exception. Thanks to God and my family who supported during this journey.

Thanks PMZilla for this wonderful forum.

Thanks for reading and Best Of Luck for everything in life.

Amit Dixit, PMP